SbCT. 73 THE SPRINGS OF ST PAUL'S HUMILITY. 471 that is a little larger than his brethren may lift up itself among fellow- emmets, or fellow-worms ; but the foot of a man treads it to the dust, and it appears a worthless and unregarded thing. Oh my' soul, if' thou wouldst lessen thyself, as a crea- ture, and a christian ought to do, live much in the sight of God as seeing him that is invisible. When God ap- pears in the glory of his holiness, God in the person of his Son Jesus in his pre existent state, as St. John tells us in chapter xii. then the seraphs cover their faces and their feet with their wings in his presence, and the holy .prophet cries out, " Woe is me, for I am undone, I am a man of unclean lips ; mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts ;" Is. vi. 2 -5. " Once have.I spoken of myself, saith Job, to maintain my own honours, yea twice, before I had seen God in his glory ; but nowmine eye has seen thee, behold I am vile, I will lay my hand .upon my mouth, I lie down in profound silence, I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes ;" Job xl. 4, 5. and xlii..5 6. Live much, therefore, O my soul, in the views of God, the fairest, and the first, and the best of beings : Live much in the contemplation of Christ' his Son, in whom dwells all the fulness of the godhead bodily, and who is the first and fairest image of the Fa- ther. 'I hou canst never dare to swell and exalt thyself, thy little worthless self, in the presence of such majesty, in the eye of such adorable anddivine excellencies. The last thing I shall mention as a spring of St. Paul's humility, was his frequent view and meditation of the condescension, the lowliness, the meekness, and self- abasement of the blessed Jesus. As he charges the Phi - lippian converts, that " the same mind and temper should be in them which was in Christ Jesus ;" Phil. ii. 5. So '. by a continual contemplation of him in his humbled estate,, he learned to imitate so divine an example, and he recommends his own conduct as a pattern for men, no farther than as he followed Christ. But this subject will fall in often by the way, while I am representing the grace of humility in its lovely ap, pearances, and therefore I dismiss it now. gx4
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